For years, I have been trawling the internet with my bespectecled eyes, desperately hoping to find some sort of proof that one day the military would accept laser eye surgery within its aircrew.
To cut a long story short, I ended up joining the army as an officer through the engineering Welbeck/DTUS scheme which recently has changed to allow us to join non-technical corps such as the infantry and AAC.
I enquired about the AAC and its policies regarding laser eye surgery and I got this reply from the Lt. Col. responsible for medical issues within the corps:
Dear Emmanuel,
Thanks you for your e-mail enquiry, it has been passed to me by Capt -----------. I hope that the following information will be some use.
The Army policy, in fact it is a Tri-Service policy, regarding laser eye surgery has indeed changed. In broad terms it now allows applicants to have had corneal refractive surgery, rather than just allowing qualified aircrew to do so. The new policy also allows a wider range of procedure and will accept the procedure performed at a greater number of centres. However, there are a number of strict criteria for acceptance and a few key points that I am obliged to point out.
Whilst the Services will accept the procedure in someone that was within the pre-operative limits and, post-surgery, is within the normal selection limits, there can be no guarantee that the surgery will make you fit to be selected. Firstly, you might fail aircrew selection for other medical or non-medical reasons, e.g. another medical condition or failure at the aptitude tests. Secondly, acceptance requires you to be within the pre-op limits, so successful surgery and an outcome within selection limits would not override this requirement. Thirdly, whilst fairly safe as operations go, no surgical procedure is without risk; you could end up outside selection limits, still requiring visual correction (whether inside selection limits or not) or, even worse, with vision that is not improved or is worse than you currently have. Fourthly, the surgery corrects refraction, it will do nothing for other visual parameters such as stereopsis (one of the types of depth perception), eye muscle balance or colour vision; consequently, you might still fail the eye tests.
Moreover, the MOD does not pay for the procedure so you would have to fund it yourself and accept any other losses, e.g. time off work.
As a result, we strongly recommend that you DO NOT HAVE CORNEAL REFRACTIVE SURGERY FOR AIRCREW SELECTION ALONE, ONLY HAVE IT IF YOU WOULD HAVE DONE SO ANYWAY!
The policy is summarised below with my emphasis on the key facts in bold:Corneal Refractive Surgery (CRS) may be performed by a number of methods: Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK), Laser Epithelial Keratomileusis (LASEK) or Laser In-Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK). However, aircrew are normally recruited at an age before ocular maturity when CRS may not provide long-term refractive stability. CRS is not recommended below age 21 for this reason.
Aircrew recruits may be accepted subject to the following criteria:
(a) CRS by PRK, LASEK and LASIK only.
(b) A minimum of one year to have elapsed since surgery
(c) Minimum age at application of 22.
(d) Subject’s refraction (i.e. vision test) to have been stable for at least 6 months.
(e) Recorded pre-operative visual defect must not exceed –5.00 to +2.00 dioptres
(f) Post operative visual acuity within current aircrew visual recruitment limits
The Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre will continue to screen RAF candidates via corneal topography to identify those who have had undeclared CRS.
If the preceding criteria are met, subjects are to be referred to CA Ophth (RAF) for as detailed below:
ii. Measurement of refractive error.
iii. Measurement of the best spectacle corrected Snellen visual acuity, with and without the ‘Brightness Acuity Tester’ glare source.
iv. Contrast sensitivity testing in photopic and mesopic conditions using the Pelli-Robson chart.
v. Contrast acuity assessment to assess functional visual performance under both photopic and mesopic levels of ambient illumination.
vi. Pupillometry in mesopic and scotopic conditions.
The aircrew selection standard that must be achieved post-surgery is:
Visual Acuity (minimum)
Ref. Range
Muscle Balance
Converg.
Accommodation
CP
Stereopsis
Uncorr.
Corr
Near
Spherical Component
Cyl
(Maddox Rod)
(with correction)
(TNO Test)
6/12
6/6
N5
-0.75 to +1.75 dioptres
+0.75 dioptres
Dist: Eso 6D to Exo 8D, ≤1DVertical
Near: Eso 6D to Exo 16D, ≤1DVertical
≤10 cm
Age 17 – 20: ≤ 11 cm
Age 21 – 25: 11 – 13 cm
2
≤120 secs
of arc
(Sorry about this table - I can't embed it properly)
I know many of you will be skeptical of the validity of this e-mail but I can assure you, it is true. Due to already technically being in the Army, I had direct access to the Lt. Col. The time it takes for this information to get to the AFCO's is an entirely different issue!
I hope this brings new hope to the many potential military pilots who have been disheartend by stringent eyesight requirements 
Cheers,
Emmanuel